Press trip opportunity: learn about scientific innovations in global health and development

The European Journalism Centre is inviting 20 European journalists to attend the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting 2018, one of the world’s leading conferences on global health and development advances. This year the conference will take place on 15–17 October in Berlin, in the context of the World Health Summit.

What is Grand Challenges?

Grand Challenges is a partnership of governments, research institutions and private foundations that aims to accelerate the translation of innovation to impact, in order to address the world’s most urgent global health and development problems.

Attending the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting will give the participating journalists an exclusive opportunity to connect to researchers and stakeholders, and learn about the latest advances in the field. Topics that will be tackled in the conference will range from antimicrobial resistance to agriculture, from health crisis prevention to the strengthening of African research & development ecosystem, and from vaccines & global health technology to climate change surveillance. The invited journalists will be able to attend the plenary and poster sessions.

In addition to granting access to the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting, the EJC will host a tailor-made half-day programme on 15 October. This will match selected journalists with experts in the field that will serve as an introduction to the topics of the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting. A high-level representative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the organisation which launched the Grand Challenges initiative in 2003, will host a Q&A in this programme.

Application process

This press trip is designed for journalists from the EU and Norway covering science and biotechnology, development and global health issues for high-profile news outlets. Freelancers with a proven track record of publishing with these organisations may also apply.

Journalists interested in joining this press trip are invited to submit an application via this online form.

The deadline to submit an application is Monday 24 September (22:00 CET).

EJC will select journalists based on their experience, the benefit to their career and work, and our commitment to supporting a diverse range of newsrooms and freelancers. Applicants will be notified by email on the status of their applications by end of September.

EJC will cover travel costs, accommodation and meals on programme days for the selected participants. Journalists should be available for the full duration and be free to travel to Berlin on Monday 15 October in the morning. Press trip engagements end on Wednesday 17 October in the afternoon.

For further queries, please don’t hesitate to emails us at: presstrips@journalismgrants.org

This initiative to enable journalists to engage with the latest global health and development trends and experts is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.